Monarchs blow past Stallions in tourney opener 78-29

Northside not only showed why it was undefeated on Wednesday night, the Monarchs also proved why they are the favorite to win the 11th annual Onslow County Classic title.

Senior Zach Hobbs scored all 16 of his points in the first half and 13 of 15 players scored in Northside’s 78-29 win over homestanding Southwest in the first round of the holiday boys’ basketball tournament.

Junior Kenny Dye added 12 points and Jason Mixon had 10 for the Monarchs (10-0), who play Swansboro on Thursday in the semifinals. The Stallions (4-4) meet Lejeune in a losers’ bracket game.

“We didn’t want to get in a half-court game with them and not be able to get in transition,” Northside coach Tony Marshburn said. “We wanted to pressure the ball and try to take away Derek Green and put pressure on Carnell Watkins.”

The Monarchs sure did against their East Central 2-A Conference foe.

Watkins had 14 points, 10 in the first half, with most of his scoring coming on open layups after turnovers. Green was held to 1 point and 2 rebounds for the game.

Watkins scored on a layup with four minutes left in the first quarter to pull the Stallions to within 11-6. That’s when Northside took over. The Monarchs closed the opening period on a 13-0 run, sparked by Dye’s pull-up jumper.

Demetrious Jones capped the spurt with a jump shot with 10 seconds left in the first quarter to give Northside a 24-6 lead. The Monarchs added a 9-1 run in the second quarter, capped by a 3-pointer by Hobbs that gave Northside a 33-12 cushion.

With Northside up 50-20 at halftime, Hobbs didn’t play much in the third quarter and sat the entire fourth quarter.

“We turned the ball over and when you turn it over against them, it gives them a short court and there’s no defense for that,” SWO coach Eric Kliewer said. “They took us out of what we wanted to do. We have to execute better on offense and also on defense.”

Southwest committed nine first-quarter turnovers and was 3 of 8 from the field in that span. Northside turned it over just twice and was 11 of 16 in the first period.

“They were bigger, but we are quicker,” Marshburn said. “We had to box out and get rebounds and we did a good job on the boards tonight. All 15 of our players played a lot tonight because we are trying to blend them in. I’m really pleased with our effort tonight.”